As companies like Figure and Tesla race to build general purpose humanoid robots, it's still not clear whether they're onto something, or merely caught up in a sci-fi fantasy fever dream.
Thank you for your mention of environmental constraints. I’m not sure what you mean but would love to see you write a post expanding on this concern. Simon Michaux has done some interesting work on the biophysical constraints that we appear to be starting to experience. https://www.simonmichaux.com
Q. U. R. is the title of an award wining short SF story by Anthony Boucher published in 1943. The title is of course a reference to the play R U R. In the story robots are systematically malfunctioning. The root cause is the human insistence of making all robots in the shape of humans and them giving the robots tasks where the human form is not appropriate. The robots reacted to the inconsistency by developing neuroses. So at least some authors pushed back on the assumption that robots are artificial humans.
This is a topic that fascinates me. Does higher order cognition hinge on real world mobility and interactivity — some argue biology??? I have a suspicion it does. But will these robots allows us to push that envelope. For some reason I suspect not so much.
Really good question -- if theories around intelligence and embodiment hold, this could be the first rung on a very interesting ladder. I'm not sure we'll see a transformative confluence of body and "mind" soon as there's a long way to go to get to the necessary levels of embodiment I suspect, but still a step in an interesting direction.
Thank you for your mention of environmental constraints. I’m not sure what you mean but would love to see you write a post expanding on this concern. Simon Michaux has done some interesting work on the biophysical constraints that we appear to be starting to experience. https://www.simonmichaux.com
Q. U. R. is the title of an award wining short SF story by Anthony Boucher published in 1943. The title is of course a reference to the play R U R. In the story robots are systematically malfunctioning. The root cause is the human insistence of making all robots in the shape of humans and them giving the robots tasks where the human form is not appropriate. The robots reacted to the inconsistency by developing neuroses. So at least some authors pushed back on the assumption that robots are artificial humans.
This is a topic that fascinates me. Does higher order cognition hinge on real world mobility and interactivity — some argue biology??? I have a suspicion it does. But will these robots allows us to push that envelope. For some reason I suspect not so much.
Really good question -- if theories around intelligence and embodiment hold, this could be the first rung on a very interesting ladder. I'm not sure we'll see a transformative confluence of body and "mind" soon as there's a long way to go to get to the necessary levels of embodiment I suspect, but still a step in an interesting direction.